About Dr. Tony Talebi

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Pancreatic cancer

Cancer of the pancreas is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States and is second only to colorectal cancer as a cause of digestive cancer-related death. The majority of these tumors are "adenocarcinomas" arising from the ductal lining of the pancreatic epithelial cells.

Surgical resection is the only potentially curative treatment. Unfortunately, because of the late presentation of the disease, only 15 to 20 percent of patients are candidates for pancreatectomy. The prognosis of pancreatic cancer is poor even in those with potentially resectable disease. The five-year survival following pancreaticoduodenectomy (Whipple procedure) is only about 25 to 30 percent for node-negative and 10 percent for node-positive tumors.

Encasement of the arteries and veins in the vicinity of the pancreas generally make the tumor not resectable although each case has to be reviewed by an experienced surgeon.